tallest front tyre and lowest rear

i need to slacken the headtube angle of my ftm carbon. i can't fit an angleset and am stuck with the forks i have (fox 140's rather than rs 150's which would have been much better). i am looking towards offset bushings, but need to check clearance on the seat tube.

the other avenue to look at is my current choice of tyres. i am running 2.25" nobby nics front and rear.

on my yeti asr5 i ran rocket ron / racing ralphs with great success. i am therefore inclined to go with a 2.1" or 2.25" racing ralph on the back to give me a much lower tyre (which will help with frame clearance if i go down the offset bushing route). is there anything worthwhile that is lower?

it needs to be suited to trail centre usage, very light and able to be set up tubeless.

in the same vein, i want to go large on the front, but again as light as possible and able to set up tubeless. hans dampf 2.35" perhaps?

I don't think offset bushings will work on a FTMc - the clearance between the shock and the mounting is very tight. Mine had to be replaced as the shlock was actually touching the mount under the top tube.

i will be changing the fork to a new 2014 RS Revelation RCT3 dual position (150mm). This should give anything up to 1.5 degrees over the 140mm Talas (on account of the increased travel and naturally longer a-c of a RS fork).

i will also be changing my tyres to a 2.35" Hans Dampf Trailstar front and a Racing Ralph 2.25" Snakeskin Pacestar rear. This should give me just under 1 degree.

I will put in one Burgtec offset bushing which should give me half a degree.

Lastly, I will change my upper headset from the 15mm FSA to a 8mm Cane Creek to bring the stem down a little.

By my ill-informed calculations, I should end up with broadly a 66-66.5 degree headtube angle (similar to a Yeti SB66) with not much difference in the BB height (the fork will bring it up and the offset bushing and shorter rear tyre will bring it back down).

How does that sound?.... just need to flog the Fox fork and the Nobby Nics now. Cost to change should be just under £250 all in (Bike24 have a very good deal on the new Revs).

As for the new mech hanger, I bought one of these with my frame from On One a month or so back.

As I posted above, are you sure offset bushings are suitable for the FTMc? The clearance at both ends of the shock is minimal, so moving the shock body further into the mount (which is what an offset bushing will do) may be problematic. I'll go outside and measure now.

i like tweaking things as i don't get enough time to ride. it makes me happy, so yes, it is worth it.

as for the offset bushing thing... i am going to swap the shock around and place the single offset bushing in the shaft end which will then be fitted at the top end (headtube end) of the frame. this should prevent the issues with clearance of the air valve with the toptube shock mount. the frame hardware is 8mm, so i'm only going to get half a degree with one, but it all helps.

changing the tyres will also be worth it. the hans dampf in trailstar guise should perform much better than the nobby nic in pacestar guise and the racing ralph pacestar out back will also roll quicker. both tyres will be snakeskin which should give me better sidewall protection than the current nobby nics which aren't.

the headset bearing change is essential as the size large ftm frame has a really long headtube and shoving a 15mm top cap on there isn't helping matters.

that just leaves the fork... i like rockshox and the new revelation looks spot on.

as for why i don't go for a new frame... the ftm carbon builds up really light (i am sub 26lbs as it stands now complete with reverb and trail wheels)and spritely. i paid £500 for the frame (via on one's ebay site), so to get close, i would need to spend a chunk more cash.

provided i decide to stick with 26ers for the time being, i don't see it as a stupid waste of money (the entire build will stand me in at less than £2,200).

Freddie - Ive just had a quick look for you. My Frame was warranty replaced by O-O due to the Air valve on the Monarch striking the shock mount, and they sent me the new frame with the shock reversed as you describe. You won't be able to put a bushing that end, as the shaft still only has 1mm clearance from the mount. However, you should then be able to put 1 bushing at the aircan end, once it is reversed. HTH.